Ben Daitz, MD

Ben Daitz is Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UNMSOM --teaching medical students and residents about family medicine and pain management. Ben is also involved in community health issues, nationally and internationally. One of his most recent projects was the development of an integrated curriculum to teach physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurse midwives together, in rural communities. Another ongoing project is medical/anthropological work among the Tsimane Indians of the Bolivian Amazon, a hunter-gather society in transition.

Ben is also a filmmaker, and his work has been honored by, among others: The American Film festival, The International Medical Film Festival, The Taos Talking Picture Festival, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Emmy nominations.

He is presently working on documentary films about a weekly newspaper, and the land grant activist Reies Tijerina. He is a contributing writer for the New York Times. His novel Delivery was published in 2004 by the University of New Mexico Press. Ben is a fiddle player, a member of the Fiasco Brothers Bluegrass Band, a jazz quartet, and a Balkan and Middle Eastern ensemble.